17. XVII. But the truth is that there can be no linking with heaven, unless somewhere on earth there is a church which possesses the Word, and the Lord is known through its means, because the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, and without Him there can be no salvation. It is enough for a church possessing the Word to exist somewhere on earth, even though it has relatively few members. The Lord is still by this means present throughout the whole globe, and by this means heaven is linked with the human race. But without the Word somewhere on earth, no one could be so linked.
The reason for the Lord's presence and the linking of heaven with the inhabitants of every part of the earth is that in the Lord's sight the whole of heaven is like one man, and so is the church; and it really is a man, because the Lord is heaven and also the church. The church, where the Word is read and the Lord is known by it, is like the heart and lungs in that man; and it is these two founts of life in the human body which allow all the other limbs and organs to remain in existence and live. So too do all the inhabitants of the globe, whose religion is the worship of one God, and who make up the limbs and organs of that Grand Man, which is heaven and the church, remain in existence and live. For it is by means of the Word in the church, even though among comparatively few, that the rest have life from the Lord through heaven, just as the limbs and organs throughout the body do from the heart and lungs. The communication between them is similar.
This too is the reason why the Christians, among whom the Word is read, make up the chest of that man; for they are in the very middle. Around them are the Roman Catholics, around them the Mohammedans, who acknowledge the Lord as a very great Prophet and a Son of God; and beyond them come the Africans. The outermost ring is made up of the races and peoples from Asia and the Indies. All those who are in that man face towards the centre. Moreover, that centre, occupied as I have said by the Christians who have the Word, enjoys the strongest light, because light in the heavens is Divine truth proceeding from the Lord as the sun. Thus light radiates as from its centre to all the circumference, and gives enlightenment. This is how the races and peoples too outside the church are enlightened by means of the Word. For all the light of heaven a person experiences comes from the Lord through heaven.
[2] What is true of heaven as a whole is also true of each community in heaven, for each of the communities there is a small-scale heaven; and it also appears in the Lord's sight like one man. (On this see my Heaven and Hell [41-87].) There too those in the middle answer in the same way to the heart and lungs, and they enjoy the strongest light. The light itself, and the perception of truth it confers, radiates from the middle in all directions towards the circumference, and is the cause of their spiritual life. It was demonstrated that so long as 1
those are removed who were in the middle, making up the province of the heart and lungs and enjoying the strongest light, those in the surroundings were in shade, and at that time had such a poor perception of truth that there was hardly any. But as soon as they returned, the light became as it was before, and so did their perception of truth.
[3] These facts may establish that the Word possessed by the Reformed church enlightens all races and peoples by a spiritual communication of this kind. Also, that the Lord sees to it that on this earth there is always a church where the Word is read. When therefore the Word was more or less rejected by the Roman Catholics, by the Lord's Divine Providence the Reformation took place; and there the Word was again accepted, and it was also regarded as holy by a noble nation among the Papists.
[4] Since without the Word there is no recognition of the Lord, and so no salvation, when the Word among the Jewish race was utterly adulterated and falsified, so making it as naught, the Lord was pleased to come into the world; and not only to fulfil the Word, but also to renew and restore it, thus giving light again to the inhabitants of this earth. As the Lord says in John:
In the beginning there was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines out in the darkness. This was the true light, which enlightens everyone who comes into the world. John 1:4-5, 9.
In the same book:
Jesus said, I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. John 8:12.
And in Matthew:
A people sitting in darkness has seen a great light. For those who sit in the neighbourhood and shadow of death, for them the light has risen. Matthew 4:16.
[5] It was predicted that at the end of this church too darkness would arise as a result of the failure to recognise and acknowledge the Lord as being the God of heaven and earth, and as a result of separating faith from charity, so causing the true understanding of the Word to be lost. The Lord therefore has been pleased at this time to reveal the spiritual sense of the Word, and to make it known that the Word in that sense deals with the Lord and the church, in fact with nothing but them; and to reveal many other things which may restore the light which had almost been extinguished. It is the extinction of the light of truth at the end of this church which is meant by the Lord's words in Matthew:
Immediately after the affliction of those days the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; and then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of the sky with glory and power. Matthew 24:29-30.
The sun there is to be understood as the Lord as regards Divine Love, the moon as the Lord as regards faith, the stars as the Lord as regards knowledge of good and truth, clouds as the literal sense of the Word and glory as its spiritual sense, the Son of Man as the Lord as regards the Word.
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